In the teeth of the novel

I’ve been rather busy with work and writing over the last three months and have let the blogging slip. Sorry. But there have been some interesting developments re: new novel. About three months ago I sent the first 80,000 words to my agent. It’s a nail-biting experience sending such a wet baby off for scrutiny – and this novel – unlike the other two – has had a forceps delivery. So when my agent came back with some sound but gulp-worthy crits I had to get my head down and do some serious hard labour. So there you are – I’ve been off the map for weeks and weeks, but I’ll try and put some posts up very soon.

In other news, I have become a member of the Tindal Street Fiction Group.

Discovering A Song of Jean

I can’t believe it’s been so long since I last posted here – work/family have been filling my time but I’ve also been hacking apart an almost complete novel and trying to put it back together again. This involves courage – and some writing. I’m determined to have a new #1 draft by the beginning of the summer so I can take a few weeks off before the rewriting process begins – so this post might be my lot for another few weeks.

In the last couple of months I have been accepted as a member of the Tindal Street Fiction Group (TSFG). The group meets once a fortnight and so far I’m enjoying the experience. The evening goes like this: reading, analysis, pub. An excellent format in my opinion. I’ve never belonged to a writing group before and although TSFG has been established for years it doesn’t feel cliquey.

I have just discovered – while writing this post and trying to find links to TSFG – that one of the members, Sybil Ruth, is the author of a poem that I have read and reread since I first came across it last year. The poem won the Mslexia Poetry Competition and is called A Song of Jean – and you can read it here.

I suddenly feel even more chuffed about being a member of TSFG.